A citation is a reference to the source of information used in a research paper or any official document or reports. It becomes necessary whenever an author directly quote, paraphrase or summarize the essential elements of someone else’s idea. Citation can be broadly divided into; in-text citation and end-of-paper citation.
In-text citation is a brief notation within the text that refers the reader to a fuller notation i.e. end of paper citation which provides all necessary details about the source of the information. See below the different forms of citation
- Parenthetical Notes: In MLA and APA styles, in-text citations usually appear as parenthetical notes and so called because brief information about the source usually author’s name, year of publication, and page number is enclosed in parentheses inserted into the text of the paper at the end of a sentence or paragraph e.g. MLA style – (Okon 265), APA style – (Okon, 2013, p. 245).
- Note Numbers: In Chicago and CSE styles, in-text citations usually appear as superscript numerals, or note numbers. These numbers are associated with full citations that can appear as footnotes (i.e. at the bottom of the page), endnotes (i.e. end of chapter or paper), or list of cited references at the end of the paper.
- End-of-Paper Citations: as well as footnotes and endnotes, include full details about a source of information. Citations contain different piece of identifying information about the source depending on what types of source it is. In academic research, sources will not commonly be articles from scholarly journals, and the citation for an article typically incudes; author(s), article title, publication information (journal title, date, value, issue, pages, etc.) and for online sources; DOI (digital object identifier), URL of the information source and URL of the journal that published the article.
At the end of the research paper, full citations should be listed in order according to the citation style required or in use. Each style has its name for the list, for instances, MLA style uses works cited page, APA style is called a Reference Page, CSE style is called a Cited References Page, and Chicago style is called Notes page or a Bibliography page.
While it is out of practice to cite common knowledge; information that most people in the audience would know without having to look it up and your own ideas, unless they have been published, direct quotations should be surrounded by quotations marks and are generally used when the idea the author want to capture is best expressed by the source. Paraphrasing and summarizing involve rewording an essential idea from someone else’s work, usually to either condense the point or to make it better fit your writing style.